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Katonah ~ April 10, 2008
For Immediate Release
Contact: Cohn Dutcher Associates
Lois Cohn, 917.339.7188, lcohn@cohndutcher.com
Dan Dutcher, 917.339.7157, ddutcher@cohndutcher.com
Laura Malick, 917.339.7183, jmarcum@cohndutcher.com
David Mayhew, 203.533.5621, david@davidmayhew.net
2008 CARAMOOR INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL
SONIDOS LATINOS
LATIN AMERICAN MUSIC INITIATIVE CONTINUES
Sunday afternoon programs explore Tango,
20th-century Latin Music
Caramoor brings Sonidos Latinos to Yonkers and Peekskill
Performances featuring Paquito D'Rivera, Vivica Genaux,
Marco Granados, Max Barros, Orchestra of St. Luke's
Special family programs for youngsters featuring Jamie Bernstein
Latin jazz is featured
Katonah, New York - Caramoor's adventurous two-year Latin American Music Initiative, Sonidos Latinos, begins its second year during the 2008 Caramoor International Music Festival with a concert of rarely-heard 20th- century musical masterpieces, three events celebrating the vibrancy and passion of Tango, and powerful sets of Latin jazz. The legendary composer and musician, Paquito D'Rivera, Caramoor's 2007-08 Composer-in-Residence, continues his association with Caramoor, and composer/flutist Marco Granados is Music Advisor to Sonidos Latinos.
Sonidos Latinos is made possible by generous support from the New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. In addition to events at Caramoor during the 2008 Festival, the initiative also includes outreach events elsewhere in Westchester County and radio broadcasts of performances at Caramoor.
"Sonidos Latinos celebrates the variety and richness of Latin American music and its growing relevance, commensurate with the growing prominence and influence of Latin American culture in our society," said Caramoo's Chief Executive and General Director, Michael Barrett. "Last summer we offered the world premieres of two commissions as part of the program, Paquito D'Rivera's Concerto for Double Bass, Clarinet/Alto Saxophone and Orchestra (Conversations with Cacha) and Marco Granados' The Venezuelan Suite. This summer, we look forward to continuing to offer opportunities for our audiences to experience the thrilling sounds of Latin music."
Sonidos Latinos Outreach - May 17 and 18
A component of the Sonidos Latinos initiative includes bringing Caramoor's family programs to other locations in Westchester County. Last summer's Sonidos Latinos Family Concert, in which narrator Jamie Bernstein, flutist Marco Granados, and the Sonidos Latinos Festival Ensemble took youngsters on a journey through Latin America exploring the traditional instruments and music of seven countries, will be performed in Yonkers and Peekskill on May 17 and 18. The Yonkers performance will take place on May 17 at Untermeyer Park, 945 North Broadway, at 3:00pm (admission is free). On Sunday, May 18 the performance will be at 3:00 p.m. at the Paramount Center for the Arts, 1008 Brown Street in Peekskill. Tickets are $5.00 and may be purchased by calling 877.840.0457.
Sonidos Latinos "On the Air"
Three hours of live Sonidos Latinos concerts at Caramoor will be broadcast on WNYC in the near future. Check your local listings. Additionally, these programs will air nationwide on Memorial Day weekend.
From Spain to the New World - Sonidos Latinos I - June 29, 4:30 p.m.
The passion, flair, and influence of Iberian concert music in the New World is re-explored in a program of rarely-heard 20th-century masterpieces. The 2007 winner of the New York City Opera-s Christopher Keene Award, mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux, returns to Caramoor in the original 1915 version of Manuel de Falla's El Amor Brujo; pianist Max Barros introduces Brazilian composer Mozart Camargo Guarnieri's Concertino for Piano and Chamber Orchestra; and the Orchestra of St. Luke's, conducted by Michael Barrett, plays a striking homage to Spanish poet García Lorca by Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas, Homenaje a Federico García Lorca.
Family Events - Sonidos Latinos II - July 6, 4:30 p.m.
Tango for the Family: Last summer narrator Jamie Bernstein and flutist Marco Granados began a family-oriented musical journey through Latin America. The journey continues this summer with a visit to Argentina and Uruguay and includes Tango dancing and music. This program, which also features the Sonidos Latinos Festival Ensemble, is appropriate for kids ages 6 and older.
Tango for Tots: An age appropriate program for youngsters under the age of 6 will take place simultaneously.
Buenos Aires Now: Tango After Piazzolla - Sonidos Latinos III - July 13, 4:30 p.m.
Sonidos Latinos heats up with an all-Tango program: Buenos Aires Now: Tango After Piazzolla. Regarded as the father of the modern Tango, which was well-known only as a strikingly dramatic dance, Astor Piazzolla elevated and introduced its form and feeling into concert music. Buenos Aires Now explores how recent composers have taken up Piazzolla's call. Paquito D'Rivera, clarinet, is joined by Marco Granados, flute, and a star-studded cast of musicians deeply versed in this vibrant art form: Pablo Aslan, bass; Emilio Solla, piano; Fernando Otero, piano; Nicolas Danielson, violin; Raul Jaurena, bandoneon; and Ayano Kataoka, marimba.
Buenos Aires Now is also a Caramoor Al Fresco event: family audiences, in particular, are invited to enjoy this Venetian Theater concert from the picnic grounds at a low price of $9.00 per ticket.
Sonidos Latinos Jazz Sets - August 2 & August 3
The Caramoor International Music Festival's acclaimed Jazz Festival - three days of performances by many of the world's greatest jazz musicians on August 1, 2, and 3 - will feature several sets of Latin music as part of Sonidos Latinos. On Saturday, August 2 at 3:00 p.m. two of today's most eminent Cuban pianists - Elio Villafranca and Chuchito Valdes - square off in Cuban piano summit. The same day, at 5:30 p.m., Brazil's foremost duo -- guitarist Ricardo Peixoto and vocalist Claudia Villela - will mesmerize us with an exploration of 50 years of Bossa Nova. Both the Jazz Festival and the entire seven-week Caramoor International Music Festival will conclude on Sunday, August 3 at 5:30 p.m. with the piano pyrotechnics of Grammy-winning Dominican pianist and Westchester County resident Michel Camilo with his trio, including Charles Flores and Dafnis Prieto.
Artists
Michael Barrett is Chief Executive and General Director of the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, where he is responsible for the administration and programming year-round and for the Caramoor International Music Festival each summer. In 2003, building on a career of twenty-five years of programming and performing experience in the arts, Mr. Barrett assumed his position at Caramoor, where he leads the artistic mission of the organization. In the last four seasons, Mr. Barrett has reaffirmed his reputation as an innovator. He has enhanced or implemented programming for a wide variety of ambitious music rarely heard in a festival setting. In 1988, he co-founded, with Steven Blier, the New York Festival of Song (NYFOS), which presents a diversity of thematic song recitals in New York City and beyond. In 1992, he co-founded the Moab Music Festival (MMF) with his wife, violist Leslie Tomkins. Mr. Barrett has been a guest conductor with the Orchestra of St. Luke's, New York Philharmonic, London Symphony, Israel Philharmonic and the Orchestre National de France, among others. He also has served variously as conductor, producer, and music director of numerous special projects, among them the world premiere of Volpone by John Musto, at Wolf Trap in 2004; Hopper's Wife by Stewart Wallace and Michael Korie at the Long Beach Opera; and, most recently, Lucrezia and Bastianello, a double bill of one-act comic operas by William Bolcom and John Musto at Carnegie Hall and Caramoor.
Pianist Max Barros was selected as Soloist of the Year in 1985 by the São Paulo Art Critics Association. A dedicated champion of Brazilian music, he has premiered and recorded works by Brazil's most important composers and is the founder and president of Ponteio Publishing Inc., a company devoted to the preservation and dissemination of Brazilian music. With the conductor Thomas Conlin, he performed the North American premiere of Ronaldo Miranda's Concertino for Piano and Strings.
Jamie Bernstein is a narrator, writer and broadcaster who transformed a lifetime of loving music into a career of sharing her knowledge and enthusiasm with others. Her father, composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein, together with her mother, the pianist and actress Felicia Montealegre, and their legions of friends in the arts, created a spontaneous, ebullient household that turned Jamie into a dyed-in-the-wool cultural enthusiast. Replicating her father's lifelong compulsion to share and teach, Jamie has devised several ways of communicating her own excitement about classical music, including The Bernstein Beat, a concert for young people about her father, modeled after his groundbreaking Young People's Concerts, and many programs for youngsters at Caramoor.
Westchester resident Michel Camilo is a native of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He studied for 13 years at the National Conservatory, and, at the age of 16, he became a member of the National Symphony Orchestra of the Dominican Republic (NSODR). He moved to New York in 1979, where he studied at Mannes College and The Juilliard School. In addition to an extensive touring schedule, Mr. Camilo, an accomplished composer, has had his works recorded by by Paquito D'Rivera and the Manhattan Transfer. The latter won a Grammy Award in 1983 for their vocal version of his composition Why Not! Mr. Camilo made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1985 with his trio and toured Europe that same year. His frequent collaborations with Flamenco guitarist Tomatito led to them to winning a Latin Grammy Award in 2000 for their album Spain. Mr. Camilo is featured among the artists in Calle 54, a film about Latin jazz by Academy Award-winning director Fernando Trueba. His Classical CD for DECCA features him with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin performing his Concerto for Piano & Orchestra and his Suite for Piano, Strings & Harp.
Paquito D'Rivera, a child prodigy in his native Cuba, played both clarinet and saxophone with the Cuban National Symphony Orchestra. He created various musical ensembles as a teenager, including the Orquesta Cubana de Musica Moderna, and was a founding member and co-director of the innovative musical ensemble Irakere. With its explosive mixture of jazz, rock, classical and traditional Cuban music, Irakere toured extensively throughout America and Europe and won a Grammy Award in 1979, the first of nine for D'Rivera, who received his first Grammy as a solo artist in 1996 for the highly acclaimed Portraits of Cuba and his ninth Grammy for Best Classical Recording for Riberas with the Buenos Aires String Quartet. His composition Merengue performed by cellist Yo-Yo Ma, also won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition in 2005. While his discography includes over 30 solo albums in jazz, bebop and Latin music, he has also made numerous contributions to classical music as a soloist and composer. In 2005, he was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master and also received the National Medal for the Arts from President George W. Bush at the White House.
Mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux, 2007 winner of the New York City Opera's Christopher Keene Award, returns to Caramoor where she was first introduced to New York-area audiences in 1996 in Rossini's La Cenerentola, conducted by Will Crutchfield. She continues to be praised for her extraordinary performances on the world's great musical stages, not only for the technical command and beauty of her distinctive voice, but also for her compelling character portrayals. She is consistently hailed as one of today's foremost interpreters of the music of the Baroque and Bel Canto eras. This summer marks her eighth engagement at Caramoor.
Marco Granados' composition, The Venezuelan Suite, received its world premiere last summer at Caramoor, where the acclaimed composer and flutist is Artistic Advisor to the Sonidos Latinos initiative. Since his 1991 New York debut at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, his performance highlights have included concerts at Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, The 92 Street Y, the 1999 British Flute Society International Convention in Manchester, as well as his thrilling performance at the closing ceremonies concert for the National Flute Association in Columbus, Ohio in 2000. In 2001, he made his London debut at the fabled Wigmore Hall, with a solo recital of classical Latin American compositions, as well as recitals at The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and for The British Flute Society at Queens College in London. Over the past several years, he has been a favorite performer at flute festivals throughout the U.S. and abroad.
Ricardo Peixoto's fluid melodic sense and original harmonic approach place him as one of the foremost Brazilian guitarists in the world today. An inspired improviser with a keen compositional sense, Peixoto's unique and eloquent style evokes images far beyond Brazilian boundaries. Whether in the role of guitarist, composer, or arranger, Peixoto draws from a broad range of instruments in a wide variety of musical dialects. "I like to explore the use of many types of guitars, using each one's unique voice," says Peixoto. "I often prefer to create textures with acoustic instruments, in lieu of synthesizers." Although the classical 7-string guitar is his instrument of choice, Peixoto also relies on a 12 string guitar, octave guitar, cavaquinho, and tenor banjo as well as electric guitars to produce his rich sonorous landscape. In addition to working with Claudia Villela, Peixoto has recorded and toured with Flora Purim and Airto, alto saxophonist Bud Shank, percussionist Dom Um Romão, keyboardist Marcos Silva as well as with his popular ensemble, Terra Sul. He is also a well-respected teacher and lecturer on Brazilian music.
Born in Havana, Cuba, Chuchito Valdes comes from one of the most distinguished musical families of Cuba. As a child prodigy, he studied with many Cuban masters, including his father Chucho Valdes, the great Cuban pianist. He has studied Cuban music, classical music and jazz piano extensively. He has recorded and performed with the world renowned Cuban band, Irakere, which he led for 2 years. He performs at festivals, clubs, and concerts throughout the world and has recently completed his first recording as a co-leader. Worldwide appearances have included the jazz festivals of Chicago, Detroit, San Jose, Havana, Cancun, as well as a recent festival performance in San Francisco's Yerba Buena Music Festival. Club dates have included Ronnie Scotts in London and Green Dolphin Street in Chicago. On November 9, 2001, he led his Afro-Cuban ensemble at Orchestra Hall in Detroit. When Chuchito is not travelling around the world performing, he lives in Cancun, Mexico where he leads his Afro-Cuban based Latin-Jazz ensemble.
Pianist and composer Elio Villafranca was born in the Pinar del Rio province of Western Cuba and was classically trained in percussion and composition at the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana. Since his arrival in the U.S., Villafranca has been involved in the East and West coast jazz and Latin jazz scenes. His music, inspired by jazz and Afro Cuban style, creates a unique cultural and musical fusion, with spirited, groundbreaking innovations. In 2003, Jazz Times magazine recognized his reputation for musical excellence by selecting his debut album Incantations/Encantaciones (Universal/Pimienta) as one of the top 50 best jazz albums of the year. Recently he completed separate European tours with Grammy-nominated Blue Note recording artists saxophonist Jane Bunnett and guitarist Pat Martino, with whom he performed at various world-renowned venues including the Blue Note Jazz Festival in Ghent, Belgium; the Blue Note Jazz Club in Milan, Italy; the Umbria Jazz Festival in Perugia, Italy; and the North Sea Jazz Festival at The Hague, Holland.
Claudia Villela's haunting improvisations and her arresting five-octave range have earned her an enthusiastic and devoted following. Her passionately independent spirit, coupled with a unique gift for evoking her rich musical heritage, has established her as one of jazz's most impressive vocalists. "...completely natural and unaffected" (Village News), Villela wows audiences with her ability to create magic from a seemingly limitless well of inspiration. Growing up in Rio de Janeiro, Claudia Villela would fall asleep at night listening to the sounds of a samba school practicing behind her grandmother's home. "I awoke to the melodies my mother sang while my father played harmonica," she recalls. "I was influenced by a rich musical diet. My music is the sum of all of the sounds I've heard, from Brazilian macumba to free form jazz to classical music. It comes from all those memories." In 1997, Villela was nominated for Jazz Singer of the Year by the National Association of Independent Record Distributors (NAIRD). Mark Holston of Jazziz described Villela as "intelligent and seductive." Helcio Milito, one of the godfathers of Bossa Nova, declared her "the biggest expression of Brazilian music in the U.S. today."
Fazioli Piano
Pianists at this year's Caramoor Jazz Festival will play the Fazioli F-278 piano, courtesy of Klavierhaus, Inc., 211 West 58th Street, in New York City. Klavierhaus is the authorized dealer for Fazioli Pianoforti of Sacile, Italy. Fewer than 100 Faziolis are available worldwide each year.
ABOUT CARAMOOR
Caramoor is the legacy of Walter and Lucie Rosen, who built the great house and filled it with their treasures. Walter Rosen was the master planner for the Caramoor estate, bringing to reality his dream of creating a place to entertain friends from around the world. Their musical evenings were the seeds of the today's International Music Festival. Realizing the pleasure their friends took in the beauty of Caramoor - the house with its art collection, the gardens, and the musical programs on summer evenings - the Rosens established a Foundation to open Caramoor to the public in perpetuity.
Lucie Rosen survived her husband by seventeen years. During those years, she expanded the Music Festival: the Spanish Courtyard was used as a setting for musical events, as it is today, and, under her direction, the great stage of the Venetian Theater was built.
Caramoor is a Garden of Great Music. "We invite people to come early, explore our beautiful grounds, take a tour of the House Museum, visit our gift shop, enjoy a pre-concert picnic, and discover beautiful music in a relaxed setting," advises Paul Rosenblum, Caramoor's Managing Director. With its unique heritage, Caramoor remains a place where magical summer days and nights are shared and enjoyed by thousands. "Caramoor is the loveliest Festival of them all."
-The New York Times
Concert Venues, Art and Gardens
Concerts take place in two outdoor theaters - the large, acoustically superb Venetian Theater, and the more intimate, romantic Spanish Courtyard. Caramoor is more than just music - there is beauty at every turn. The House Museum, the former summer home of Caramoor's founders, Lucie and Walter Rosen, contains a vast collection of Renaissance, 18th-century, and Eastern art objects - furniture, tapestries, sculpture, paintings, textiles, porcelain and jade. There are entire rooms that were imported from European palaces and villas. In fact, Caramoor is one of just five mansions in the country that incorporate entire rooms into its collection, twenty of which are open to the public. On Thursdays and Fridays, Afternoon Tea is served in the Summer Dining Room, overlooking the charming Spanish Courtyard.
Caramoor's gardens are also well worth the visit. Nine unique perennial gardens -- including a Sense Circle for the visually handicapped, a Butterfly Garden, a Medieval Mount, and two gardens whose special characteristics are enjoyed primarily at night may be seen on a guided tour or on one's own.
Picnicking at Caramoor
Extend your Caramoor experience by arriving for concerts early and enjoying a picnic amidst the beautiful gardens. Pre-purchase picnics from Great Performances at 212.337.6055.
House Museum
Guided tours of the House Museum are provided from Wednesday through Sunday, 1:00-4:00 p.m., with the last tour at 3:00 p.m. On Saturdays, during the Festival, tours are given from 1:00-5:00 p.m., with the last tour at 4:00 p.m. Tickets are $10 (children 16 and under free).
GETTING TO CARAMOOR
Caramoor is easy to get to by car and mass transportation.
By car from the West Side of Manhattan and New Jersey, take the Saw Mill River Parkway north to Katonah. Exit at Route 35/Cross River. Turn right, and at the first traffic light make a right turn onto Route 22 south. Travel 1.9 miles to the junction of Girdle Ridge Road. Follow the signs to Caramoor. (For detailed directions call 914.232.5035 and press 2, or online at www.caramoor.org). Parking at Caramoor is free.
By train, take the Harlem Division of the Metro-North Railroad to Katonah, New York. Taxi service from the station to Caramoor (5 minutes away) is available.
TICKETS
Tickets may be ordered by calling the Box Office at 914.232.1252 or online at www.caramoor.org.
Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts is located at 149 Girdle Ridge Road, Katonah, New York.
ALL PROGRAMS AND ARTISTS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE
2008 Caramoor International Music Festival
Sonidos Latinos
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June 29 From Spain to the New World
Sunday, 4:30 pm Sonidos Latinos I
Venetian Theater Vivica Genaux, mezzo-soprano
Max Barros, piano
Orchestra of St. Luke's
Michael Barrett, conductor
Guarnieri Concertino for Piano and Chamber Orchestra
Revueltas Homenaje a Federico García Lorca
De Falla El Amor Brujo (original 1915 version)
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July 6 Sonidos Latinos Family Events
Sunday, 4:30 pm Sonidos Latinos II
Venetian Theater Tango for the Family (appropriate for children 6 and older)
Jamie Bernstein, narrator
Marco Granados, flute
Sonidos Latinos Festival Ensemble
Reception Tent Tango for Tots (appropriate for children under 6)
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July 13 Buenos Aires Now: Tango After Piazzolla
Sunday, 4:30 pm Sonidos Latinos III
Venetian Theater Paquito D'Rivera, clarinet
Marco Granados, flute
Pablo Aslan, bass
Emilio Solla, piano
Fernando Otero, piano
Nicolas Danielson, violin
Raul Jaurena, bandoneon
Ayano Kataoka, marimba
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Venetian Theater Jazz Festival - Sonidos Latinos sets
August 2
Saturday, 3:00 pm Cuban Piano Summit - Elio Villafranca and Chuchito Valdes
Saturday, 5:30 pm 50 Years of Bossa Nova - Ricardo Peixoto, guitar; Claudia Villela, vocals
This concert is sponsored, in part, by generous support from Wachovia Wealth Management
August 3
Sunday, 5:30 pm Michel Camilio Trio with Charles Flores and Dafnis Prieto
The Caramoor Jazz Festival is produced by Jim Luce.
Sonidos Latinos, Caramoor's Latin American Music Initiative, is made possible by generous support from the New York State
Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.
Performances are made possible, in part, by the Performances are made possible with
Westchester Arts Council, with funds from public funds from the New York State
Westchester County Government. Council on the Arts, a state agency.
ALL PROGRAMS AND ARTISTS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE
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Press Tickets:
Laura Malick
917.339.7183
lmalick@cohndutcher.com
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